Robin Recall
To prevent any misconceptions I will emphatically state that I do indeed like robins.
Not that is out of the way I have say this: Robins have got to be one of the stupidest birds out there.
Why the vitriol?
Maybe I’m just fed up with this particular batch of red-breasted harbingers of spring.
I don’t mind how they try to nest in our patio rafters every year—at least not too much since when we do allow a nest it’s plenty entertaining watching them raise their noisy brood.
I’m irritated but understanding when they lob their droppings all over my outdoor furniture—when nature calls, and all that.
I must say I get tremendous enjoyment watching them splash around in the birdbath—they are exorbitant extroverts when it comes to bathing.
I do mind one distinct and inexcusable behavior: robin reflection bobbing. Or flap and slap. I’m sure there must be a scientific term for how robins (I have yet to see other birds do this behavior) go for their window reflection endlessly flapping up against it until I shoo them away.
This is is the first year in the thirty years at this address I’ve seen this behavior.
Right—I understand they think it’s another bird and are feeling territorial…
Yet this year they are taking on car windows, the neighbor’s shed window, the office window, the living room window. These aren’t isolated incidents but repeated violations no matter how many times they are chased away.
We even blocked a window so the reflection was covered and the robin still wanted to fight with the window.
I’m doing a call out here—has anyone else noticed their backyard robins being so crazily hostile this year?
My explanation is that this year’s robins are an off batch. They give meaning to the description of being bird-brained.
Maybe there should be a robin recall. Anyone know the number of the department of defective birds? Or did that one get shuttered as well?
Pam Webb 